French journalist Florence Aubenas, kept hostage for more than five months in Iraq, arrived home late Sunday as bodies found in Baghdad and the rising US death toll are pointing to continued violence in the country.

French President Jacques Chirac greeted the 44-year-old senior journalist of the French left-wing daily Liberation at the Villacoublay military airport in the southwest suburb of Paris.

In a televised address, Chirac paid homage to an "exceptional" public campaign and to Aubenas' family as well as to the French intelligence and military services deployed.

Earlier on Sunday, Chirac also thanked the French public for support to Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter, Hussein Hanun, both of whom were abducted as they were leaving a Baghdad hotel on Jan.5.

Hanun, who was also released, returned to his home in Baghdad in a French Embassy car.

The release was officially announced by French authorities earlier on Sunday and the government denied that a ransom was paid for their release.

"There was absolutely no demand for money. No ransom was paid, "French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told the Europe 1 radio station.

Aubenas, in her career of 18 years, had been to many hot spots around the world, such as Rwanda, Afghanistan and Kosovo before going to Iraq.

Antoine de Gaudemar, managing editor of the Liberation newspaper for which she works, said: "We are completely swept away with joy at Liberation. It's a huge relief after five months of nightmare."

The European Union also hailed the release, calling on "the different groups in Iraq to free all remaining hostages in captivity and pursue their goals through the political process and not through violence and intimidation."

As bliss dominates France, the bodies of 20 people killed execution style were found Sunday near Nahrawan, southeast of Baghdad, according to local police.

The bodies of the 20 people, bound, blindfolded and shot in the head, were found on Friday, days after they were dumped and became decomposed.

Iraq's main Sunni organization, the Muslim Scholars Association, said on its website that a total of 30 bodies had been found around the execution area and one of them was identified as belonging to a Sunni Arab.

Also on Sunday, the US military said four US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs during combat operations west of Baghdad.

It said two soldiers were killed Saturday when a bomb went off near their vehicle outside Amiriyah, 40 km west of Baghdad. The other two died Saturday when a bomb caught their vehicle near Taqaddum, 72 km west of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, pending trials of Iraq's ousted leader Saddam Hussein brought the somewhat obscured former president back to limelight and a lawyer for him said in an interview that any tria lof the ousted Iraqi leader should be held in Europe.

The London-based attorney Giovanni di Stefano told the Swedish television network SVT in a program that Saddam's defense team would like to see the trial held in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland or the Netherlands.

He would favor Sweden, more than any other country, as he believed Saddam is most likely to be given a fair trial there.

Di Stefano, one of the defense team hired by Saddam's family, stressed that the United Nations acknowledged the Iraqi Constitution in 1969 under which Iraqi courts have no rights to file a lawsuit against the country's former leader Saddam.

"The president of Iraq has confirmed to us he will be signing no warrant of execution as would be required under Iraqi law," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2005)